Digital Shop Floor Control Equals Better Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) can be described as "a set of techniques and tools for the acquisition and transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes".

It’s interesting to hear what prospects and customers say about improving their shopfloor practices. Below are a few statements I have heard:

“I pay my people by the hour, I get the production that I need. I pay my employees a bonus and overtime when I need more production than usual or during crunch time.”

“A digital shop floor solution, so what. What could I possibly gain from a digital shop floor? What is a digital shopfloor, by the way? It sounds complicated.”

“I just purchased some automated equipment. I hear it running all day long, I’m sure I’m getting the added value and production the vendor promised.”

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it” Peter Drucker

Measure it!

If you don’t have a digital shopfloor, how in the world can you measure your productivity? If you don’t measure your productivity how can you improve?

Sewing machine operators, can they be digital?

You pay your employees by the hour and a bonus when you asked them to go the extra mile. You may even have them keep a tally sheet for themselves so they can meet a certain production goal. You probably have some checks and balances in place to help keep everyone honest, but there are always a few bad apples.

Real-Time benefits are Undeniable

However, in a digital Real-Time environment, each machine is equipped with an Android tablet to indicate a location or workplace. When the employee sits down to work they scan their employee badge (clocking in), immediately, you’ve just added 10-12 minutes of productivity per employee per day by eliminating the time clock. You know who is present, absent or tardy instantly.

Next, the employee scans the bundle ticket of their next bundle to work on. Supervisors and managers know instantaneously where every bundle is in the plant and what is being worked on. No more misplaced or lost bundles, you can report the bundles last known location.

Without Data You’re Just Another Person With An Opinion

W. Edwards Deming, Data Scientist

Additionally, when a sewing operator has a needle break, machine down or is out of work they can indicate it on the tablet and the mechanic or supervisor are notified directly. Another 15-20 minutes of productivity is added to every sewer per day with overall improved communication and notifications.

Off-standard time is captured, measured and reported at any point in the day.

Payroll processing time is virtually automatically processed versus the tedious time it takes to gather time sheets, calculate and prepare.

WIP Reduced With Real-Time

Because of the Real-Time system in place you can reduce your WIP inventory. You have a tighter grip on the entire process. The savings on WIP reduction alone are tremendous.

Capturing Real-Time Quality Data

With Real-Time Shop floor Control your quality auditors can travel around the plant with their tablet and perform in-line inspection, re-inspection, final inspection, etc. You’ll know which operator and machine did the work, take a picture and document quality problems while gathering statistical quality data digitally.

Machine Shop Floor Control

Wait, What? I’ve never heard of managing my machine performance. If you measure the sewers, then why wouldn’t you measure the automated machines and their performance? For example, automated cutters, pocket setters, etc.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is the gold standard for measuring manufacturing productivity. It is the best metric for identifying losses, benchmarking progress and improving productivity of manufacturing equipment.

What production gains can you expect? Let’s first talk about what OEE is.

OEE is when you measure Availability, Performance, Quality and Capacity

Availability – This simply means that you are measuring late starts, early departure or break creep. Rework, microstops, material handling, setup and maintenance issues are all related to machine availability.

Performance – What was the actual expected speed, did you gain or lose?

Quality – Customer rejects and quality reasons are captured

Capacity – What are the scheduled production hours? Were there meetings, was preventative maintenance performed.

With the data captured you have the ability to report on each machine, plant and enterprise independently or together.

At TexTempo, we provide manufacturers with real-time visibility into hidden production potential on the shopfloor. Insights gained through analysis and reporting software can reduce operating costs, increase manufacturing profitability and drive rapid time to value.

Call or email us for an audit of your process so your company can start enjoying the benefits of Real-Time Shop floor Control.

About Us

TexTempo accelerates sewn-products productivity and business processes through technology, consulting and support services. We combine decades of industry expertise with the latest information and automation technologies to help producers of apparel, automotive interiors, home furnishings and other consumer and industrial textile-based products to achieve greater operational efficiency and speed.